Device for collecting sheets of laminar material



July '2, 1963 M. D. P. SWENKER ETAL 3,096,039

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING SHEETS OF LAMINAR MATERIAL Filed Nov. 20, 1961 3Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS MARTIN DOMIN l CUS PIERRE SWENKER JOHANNESCORNEUS AUGUSTINUS VERCOULEN BY M A'ITORNEY July 2, 1963 M. D. P.SWENKER ETAL 3,

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING SHEETS OF LAMINAR MATERIAL Filed Nov. 20, 1961 3Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS MARTIN DOMINICUS PIERRE 8 WE NKE R J O H AN N ES CORNELIS AUGUSTINUS VERCOULEN BY QAMXQ.

ATTORNEY y 1963 M. D. P. SWENKER ETAL 3,096,039

DEVICE FOR COLLECTING SHEETS 0F LAMINAR MATERIAL Filed Nov. 20, 1961 3Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORS MARTIN DOMINICUS PIERRE SWENKER JOHANNESCORNELIS AUGUSTINUS VERCOULEN ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,096,089DEVICE FOR COLLECTWG SHEETS OF LAMINAR MATERIAL Martin Dominicns PierreSweniter and Johannes Cornelis Augusfinns Vercoulen, both of Venlo,Netherlands, assignors to Chemische Fahrielt L. van der Grinten N.V.,Venlo, Netherlands, a corporation Filed Nov. 20, 1961, Ser. do. 153,536

Claims priority, application Netherlands Dec. 1, 1960 8 Claims. (Cl.271-64) The invention relates to apparatus for the assorted collectingof sheets of laminar material, which comprises a number of collectingcompartments, which are delimitated by walls extending radially towardsa horizontal shaft and which can be rotated about this shaft, in whichapparatus each compartment is closed on the side turned towards theshaft and provided with an opening for feeding the sheets on the sideturned away from the shaft, and in which each compartment is alsoprovided with members for closing said opening at least partially,control members being present for keeping each compartment in its openedposition through only a part (the so-called filling stage) of its pathof movement.

Such apparatus, the compartments of which have been combined into adrum, while each compartment has a wedge-shaped cross-section, is knownfrom United States Patent No. 2,936,167.

The size of the collecting compartments in such apparatus of course hasto be adapted to the number of sheets to be collected in eachcompartment and to the size of these sheets. In said known apparatus thedistance between the radially diverging walls on the side turned towardsthe shaft will always have to be slightly greater than the totalthickness of the maximum number of sheets to be collected. Owing to itswedge shape the compartment is much wider on the side turned away fromthe shaft, and on this side there is considerable space between thecollected sheets and the walls of the compartment.

The larger size of the compartment on the side turned away from theshaft offers the advantage that the feed opening can be relativelylarge, which facilitates the feeding of the sheets considerably. A largefeed opening is particularly useful when the collected sheets are notperfectly flat, e.g. when they tend to curl.

The wedge-shaped cross-section of the compartment may, however, causedifliculties when the sheets collected in the compartment are made oflimp material (such as paper of weight 80 g./m. and are of a relativelylarge size (such as DIN A3). In fact, when the compartment isapproximately vertically below the shaft of the drum during itsrotation, so that the collected sheets rest on their edges which are inthe wider part of the compartment, the sheets will tend to bend and curlup owing to their limpness and under the influence of gravity. They maythen get stuck in a bent position between the walls of the compartment.Consequently, when the compartment concerned reaches the filling stageagain, any sheets which have thus got stuck between the Walls mayprevent the feeding of fresh sheets.

Apparatus of another type is known, in which again sheets of laminarmaterial are collected in a drum comprising radially extending pockets(see United States Patent No. 2,936,168) and in which in each pocket thesheets are pressed against a wall of the pocket by pressure members.Owing to this pressing operation the bending of the sheets is naturallyprevented; since the pressure members, however, also serve to preventthe sheets from falling out of the device during the rotation of thedrum, they exert a considerable force on the sheets. In con- "icesequence the sheets may be damaged. Another disadvantage of thisapparatus is that it is practically impossible to remove the sheets fromthe apparatus against the action of the pressure members; hence specialmeans have been provided with which the pressure members can bereleased.

The apparatus according to the present invention does not have thedisadvantages of the known apparatus; it makes it possible to collectthin and limp sheets and remove them from the compartments without anydiificulty.

To this end each compartment is provided with a supporting member whichis adapted to be moved between two end-positions and which extendsinside the compartment from the side turned towards the shaft to theneighbourhood of the side turned away from the shaft and divides thiscompartment into an operative section and an inoperative section, insuch a way that, while the stage in which the compartment is opened istraversed, the supporting member is in one end-position and the size ofthe operative section substantially corresponds with that of thecompartment, whereas, While the rest of the path of movement istraversed, the supporting member is in the other end-position, and thedistance between the supporting member and the wall which helps todelimit the operative section of the compartment is substantially equalat least on the said two sides and in the middle.

By this measure it is ensured that the sheets are collected in a spacewith a substantially rectangular crosssection, contained between a wallof the compartment and the supporting member. When the compartment isbeyond the so-called filling stage, this space is only narrow and thecollected sheets will not bend in it and thus will not get stuck in thecompartment.

The distance at which the movable member has to extend from a wall of acompartment is dependent on the number of sheets that has to becollected in the compartment and on the thickness of those sheets. Ithas been found that, when the said distance is 23 cm., 150-200 sheets ofpaper of weight g./m. can be collected in the compartment withoutdifficulty.

As in the apparatus according to the invention the movable member doesnot exert any pressure on the collected sheets, the sheets can be easilyremoved from the apparatus, while the risk of damage to the sheets isextremely small.

Preferably each supporting member is so constructed that, when thecorresponding compartment is beyond the filling stage, said member takesup a position in which it extends substantially parallel to and at ashort distance from a wall of the compartment and closes the latter incombination with the closing member. In this case the supporting membermay be made of a number of interconnected bars or of elastic wires.

The supporting member may be combined with the closing member, such as aflap, with which the feed opening of the compartment can be closed. Thesupporting member and the closing member may be rigidly connectedtogether, or they may be coupled with each other by means of bars,hinges and the like, or they may not be coupled with each other, but maybe controlled by synchronously operating control members. In such anembodiment of the apparatus the total weight of the collected sheetswill rest temporarily on the closing member during the rotation of thecompartment about the horizontal shaft. To obtain reliable operationalso in those cases in which a large number of sheets have to becollected in one compartment, the closing member will have to be ofrelatively heavy construction, which is of course disadvantageous.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention this disadvantage is obviatedby the feature that the wall of the 3 compartment facing the supportingmember is provided with a fixed guard which serves to close thecompartment partially on the side turned away from the horizontal shaft.The construction of such 'a fixed guard may be very simple. It'mayconsist, for instance, of a doubled edge of the said wall.

To ensure that the sheets can be fed to the compartments withoutdifiiculty, the feed openings of the compartments have to be relativelywide. Hinges, coupling rods and the like in the vicinity of the feedopenings may interfere with the feeding of the sheets in a troublesomemanner. In a preferred embodiment of the invention, troublefree feedingof the sheets is obtained by mounting the supporting member pivotally inbearings in the vicinity of the horizontal shaft.

Specific embodiments of the apparatus according to the invention areillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagram, partly in side elevation, partly in'cross-section, of an embodiment in which there is mounted, inside eachcompartment, a flap adapted to close the compartment and a supportingmember which is connected with said flap.

FIGURE 2 shows the front elevation (partly in crosssection) of theapparatus according to FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a diagram, partly in side elevation, partly incross-section, of an apparatus in which the supporting member is mountedin hearings in the vicinity of the shaft of the device.

Referring to these drawings, in FIGURES 1 and 2, 1 is the base of thedevice, which is constructed, for instance, of steel sections, to whicha vertically mounted frame plate 2 has been fastened. Secured to frameplate 2 by means of a nut 4 is one end of a threaded shaft 3. Mountedrotatably in hearings on shaft 3 is a system of wedgeshaped collectingcompartments (seen in cross-section), which consists of a number ofplates 5 which are radially directed towards shaft 3, a circular plate 6perpendicular to shaft 3, and a cylinder 7 surrounding shaft 3concentrically.

Each collecting compartment is delimitated and closed 'breadthwise byplates 5, and on the side turned towards shaft 3 by cylinder 7. On theside turned towards the front in the figure each compartment is closedby the plate 6; the side of the compartment turned towards the rear isopen. Again on the side turned away from shaft 3 each compartment isopen; the opening, however, is partially closed by an angularly bentedge of a plate 5. Secured to the other plate 5 inside the compartmentare hinges, in which the hinge shaft 8 of a flap 9 is movably mounted inbearings.

In each compartment a movable supporting member 10 is mounted, one endof which is pivotally connected with flap 9, while the opposite end isadapted to slide in openings in cylinder 7. The supporting member 10divides the space in the collecting compartment into two sections, ofwhich one section (the operative section) is situated between supportingmember 10 and the plate 5, whose angularly Ibent edge partially closesthe opening of the compartment, while the other section (the inoperativesection) lies between the supporting member and the other wall of thecompartment.

By means of control members (to be shown hereinafter) each flap 9 andthe supporting member 10 connected therewith is movable between twoend-positions inside the compartment. In the one end-position the flap 9closes the compartment on the side turned away from shaft 3 and thesupporting member 10 extends substantially parallel to and at a shortdistance from the angularly bent wall of the compartment. When themachine is intended for collecting a maximum of 100 sheets of relativelythin photo-printing material, this distance between supporting member 10and wall 5 will be about 2-3 cm. When other materials (such ascard-board) or larger numbers of sheets are handled, this distance maybe5 cm.

or more. The operative section of the compartment is then a narrow,closed space. In the other endaposition the flap 9 takes up a positionin which the side of the compartment turned away from shaft 3 is openand the supporting member 10 rests against the other wall of thecompartment. The operative section then comprises practically the wholespace inside the compartment.

'On one side the hinge-shafts 8, which are fixed to the flaps 9, reachthrough openings in the plate 6. Beyond plate 6 each shaft 8 is providedwith a crank 11, on which a wheel 12 is rotatably supported.

The wheels 12 press against a guide 13 surrounding shaft 3, which guideis formed by the edge of a plate that is rigidly fixed to frame plate 2.Springs 14, which are stretched between the cranks 11 and pins 15fastened to the plate 6, keep the wheels 12 continuously in contact withthe guide 13. The guide 13 (partly indicated by dotted lines inFIGURE 1) is provided with a cam 16 indicated by dotted lines in FIGURE1). The size and the position of the guide 13 have been so chosen thatwhen the wheel 12 rests on the cam 16, a crank 11 has been pushed awayso far from the shaft 3 that the flap 9 and supporting members 10connected with crank 11 are in the end-position in which the compartmentis open on the side turned away from shaft 3 andt-hat, when the wheels12 rest on the guide 13 beyond the cam 16, the cranks 11 take up aposition such that the flaps 9 and supporting members 10 connectedtherewith are in the other end-position, the compartments concerned thusbeing closed.

The system of collecting compartments and the me bers mounted thereincan be rotated about shaft 3 by driving members known per se (and notshown in the figure). During rotation the wheels 12 run along the guide13. The compartments are then opened in the part of their path ofmovement (the so-called filling stage) in which the wheels 12 move pastcam 16; through the rest of their path of movement the compartments areclosed.

The apparatus described is combined with the apparatus delivering thesheets to be'collected in such a way that the ejecting section of saidapparatus opens out above the filling stage of the apparatus. The sheetsdelivered can then be fed into the collecting compartment present in thefilling stage, via the feed opening.

In FIGURE 1 the ejecting section of a sheet-feeding apparatus is showndiagrammatically; it comprises a conveyor belt 17, guide rollers 18, 19and guide plates 20, 21. The sheets to be collected are fed one by onewhile lying on the belt 17, gripped b the rollers 18, 19, and thenguided between the guide plates '20, 21 towards the collectingcompartment present underneath the guide plates 20, 21 at that moment.

The speed and manner of rotation of the collecting compartments ofcourse have to be adapted to the speed with which the sheets to bedelivered are fed, to the size of those sheets, and naturally also tothe way in which the sheets have to be assorted as they are beingcollected. The rotation of the compartments will preferably becontrolled (in a manner known per se) with control impulses which arederived from the apparatus that delivers the sheets. Such impulses canbe used advantageously to move the system of collecting compartments ina jerky manner, or to and fro, if desired, in such a way that whenever asheet arrives between the guide plates 20, 21, the desired compartmentis at a standstill underneath these guide plates.

Because as the sheets are fed the operative section occupies practicallythe whole space of the compartment, the sheets can be fed withoutdifiiculty, even when they are limp and/or tend to curl.

When the compartment with the sheets collected therein is moved beyondthe filling stage, as a result of which the supporting member is movedtowards the end-position in which the operative section is confined to anarrow closed space, the collected sheets do not have enough room tobend in an inconvenient way. They thus remain practically flat.

The angularly bent wall of the compartment, in cooperation with the flap9 and the supporting member of course, prevents the collected sheetsfrom falling out of the apparatus while the compartment is rotating.Since the sheets rest entirely on the flap and the supporting memberduring part of the roation of a compartment, the spring 14, which keepsthe flap 9 and the supporting members 10 in the desired position, has tobe sufiiciently strong to bear the weight of the sheets.

In the apparatus shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 the supporting member 10consists of a set of straight supporting bars, extending at somedistance from each other (such as 10 cm.). Instead of straight bars,undulatorily bent bars can also be used, or bars bent in such a way thatthey reach only with their middle section to the vicinity of theangularly bent wall of the compartment. Instead of bars, flat or curvedplates or strips can also be used as supporting members.

The sheets collected in the compartments can be easily removed from theapparatus on the open side, which is turned towards the rear in FIGURE 1(right side in FIGURE 2).

In FIGURE 3 apparatus similar in principle to that of FIGURE 1 is showndiagrammatically, though it has been constructed in a somewhat differentway. "In each collecting compartment of this apparatus there is mounteda supporting member which consists of a flat plate 10 which is pivotallysupported in hinges 22 on the side of the compartment turned towards theshaft 3. On the side of the supporting plate 10 turned towards theinoperative section of the compartment a brace 23 is fitted. Between thebrace 23 and supporting plate 19, one bent end of a crank 24 is adaptedto slide. The crank 24 is also pivotally supported in the plate 6 andpasses through this plate with a bent arm 25. Arm 25 carries a smallwheel 26, which is supported in the double guide 27. The guide 27, whichis rigidly connected with the frame of the apparatus (by means notshown), near the filling stage has a curvature turned towards the shaft.During the rotation of the collecting compartments the small wheels 26run between the guide 27. In the filling stage the small wheels, owingto the curvature of the guide, are forced towards shaft 3. The cranks 24and 25 then swing round, which results in supporting plate 10 beingmoved from one end-position to the other and the compartment concernedbeing opened.

In comparison with the apparatus according to FIG- URE 1 the apparatusaccording to FIGURE 3 has the advantage that the supporting member isentirely smooth in the vicinity of the opening through which the sheetsare fed, so that the feeding of the sheets cannot be interfered with byprojecting parts, such as hinge-shafts, joints, and the like.

We claim:

1. An apparatus for the assorted collecting of sheets of laminarmaterial, comprising movable support means, a multiplicity of wallsspaced apart on said support means and carried thereby about ahorizontal axis in substantially radial relation to said axis, eachadjacent two of said walls continuously delimiting a wedge-shaped spacewidened at its radially outer end, a sheet-supporting member mountedswingably within each said space in spaced relation to one of said wallsand forming with said one wall a sheet collecting compartment, saidmember extending over a greater part of the radial extent of said onewall and having its inner end continuously spaced from said one wall bya distance corresponding to the desired sheet collecting depth of saidcompartment, and positioning means connected with each said supportingmember and operative upon movement of said support means to movesaidmember between (1) a normal position in which said member and saidone wall form a relatively closed sheet-retaining compartment and (2) anopen position in which said member is swung away from said one wall withits outer end lying adjacent the other of said two Walls whereby saidcompartment is opened to nearly the width of said widened end of saidspace to receive a sheet fed thereinto or for the removal of sheetscollected therein.

2. An apparatus according to claim =1, said supporting member when insaid normal position having its outer end spaced from said one wall byapproximately the same distance as its inner end.

3. An apparatus according to claim 1, said supporting member lyingapproximately parallel :to said one wall when in said normal position.

4. An apparatus according to claim 1, said member and said one wallhaving cooperating means on their outer ends whereby said compartment isclosed at its outer end when said member is in said normal position.

5. An apparatus according to claim 1, said one wall having on its outerend a lateral extension which extends across the outer end of saidcompartment but only partially across the widened end of said space.

6. An apparatus according to claim 1, each said supporting member beingmounted near its inner end for swinging movement about an axis fixed insubstantially parallel relation to said one wall and the aforesaid axis.

7. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an innercircumferential wall fixed relative to said radial walls and closing theinner end of each said compartment, each said supporting member havingan inner end portion extending slidably and swingably through a slot insaid inner circumferential wall.

8. An apparatus according to claim 1, each said supporting member beinghinged at its inner end to the other of said two walls.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,589,676 Crissy Mar. '18, 1952 2,940,750 Mestie June 14, 1960

1. AN APPARATUS FOR THE ASSORTER COLLECTING OF SHEETS OF LAMINARMATERIAL, COMPRISING MOVABLE SUPPORT MEANS, A MULTIPLICITY OF WALLSSPACED APART ON SAID SUPPORT MEANS, AND CARRIED THEREBY ABOUT AHORIZONTAL AXIS IN SUBSTANTIALLY RADIAL RELATION TO SAID AXIS, EACHADJACENT TWO OF SAID WALLS CONTINUOUSLY DELIMITING A WEDGE-SHAPED SPACEWIDENED AT ITS RADIALLY OUTER END, A SHEET-SUPPORTING MEMBER MOUNTEDSWINGABLY WITHIN EACH SAID SPACE IN SPACED RELATION TO ONE OF SAID WALLSAND FORMING WITH SAID ONE WALL A SHEET-COLLECTING COMPARTMENT, SAIDMEMBER EXTENDING OVER A GREATER PART OF THE RADIAL EXTENT OF SAID ONEWALL AND HAVING ITS INNER END CONTINUOUSLY SPACED FROM SAID ONE WALL BYA DISTANCE CORRESPONDING TO THE DESIRED SHEET COLLECTING DEPTH OF SAIDCOMPARTMENT, AND POSITIONNING MEANS CONNECTED WITH EACH SAID SUPPORTINGMEMBER AND OPERATIVE UPON MOVEMENT OF SAID SUPPORT MEANS TO MOVE SAIDMEMBER BETWEEN (1) A NORMAL POSI-